Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 111
The instructor folded his arms and his fingers tapped against his elbow as he thought. He picked Debonair up and primed it. It still seemed in working order. He examined it for a few seconds before he turned it off and retrieved the holster from the box. Calmly, he slid the pistol into it and grabbed his coat.
Kaiden walked through the academy grounds and looked aimlessly around. It was almost lunchtime, but he didn’t feel particularly hungry. He received a network notice from Flynn but ignored it and canceled the screen.
“That’s the fifth invite you’ve declined in the last two days,” Chief muttered. He retrieved his optic shades and put them on, and Chief’s avatar appeared in the corner. “They’re worried, partner. Sure, some of them come from military families, but this is probably the first time they’ve really had to deal with something like this.”
“I know, but I can’t deal with the questions and all that right now,” Kaiden admitted and continued his walk. “I’ll be fine. I ain’t going to be worth much after I get out of here if I let one near-death experience rattle me, right? I’ll probably have a few more of those come my way, at least.”
“You’ve only gone to two workshops,” the EI noted. “It’s your time and all, but if you miss exams and missions, that’ll cost you in more ways than one.”
“I’ve already told you I’ll prep for the test next week,” he retorted and stopped in front of the Animus Center. He looked at it for a moment, and a small tremor of concern raced through him. It was quickly replaced by annoyance. “I think I’ll start now.”
Kaiden appeared in the middle of a circular cave with two tunnels on either side and platforms above him.
“You can begin the trial when ready,” Chief informed him and appeared over his shoulder “Are you sure you wanna run one of these?”
“It’s only a three-wave horde match,” Kaiden responded. He opened the loadout screen, selected his saved option, and his weapons appeared—the Raptor in his hands and Debonair in its holster on his side. “It’ll last fifteen minutes, tops. I gotta shake off the dust and stretch.”
The EI studied him for a moment before he moved to Kaiden’s HUD. “Droids and explosions. It’s good to be back to something normal,” he quipped.
“Begin,” the ace ordered. A loud alarm clanged, and words appeared on his visor.
Wave 1 Commencing
Several Security droids appeared. Kaiden spun and obliterated three before they could so much as take a step. Two others fired, but he dodged their slow shots and returned fire to blast one’s head and drop the other with two rounds to the chest.
A few more spawned in, but he found his rhythm and eliminated each of them with a single shot before they had a chance to fire.
He vented his rifle and Chief scanned the room. “Nothing poppin’ but you have some hostiles approaching from the tunnel in front of you. By their readings, they look like Guardians.”
Kaiden took a shock grenade from the container and held the activator down. Three Guardian droids appeared, rolled along on their tracks, and took aim. He threw the shock, and the blast froze the droids as he ran closer and fired several shots at their weaker bottom halves. They toppled and disappeared.
Wave 1 Complete
“Maybe I made it too easy,” the ace mulled to himself.
“This one’s got Guardians, Brute droids, and those zippy Sentry bastards.”
“Flying or ground?”
“Both.”
Kaiden looked at the platforms above. “Then I should probably scale up a bit.” He made a running jump against the cave wall and used that to launch himself higher. As two Guardian droids appeared below, he grabbed one of the floating platforms and hauled himself up. Quickly, he switched to ballistic rounds and fired at the treads of the oncoming enemy. The shots maimed them, and they immediately fell.
“Brutes at four.” A trio of bipedal, red, stocky droids aimed their arm cannons at him. The ace leapt upward and fired at the top of the middle droid’s cannon to knock it down as it fired. The mechanical was destroyed in the blast and the other two tumbled to the ground. As Kaiden landed, a stinging blast struck him in the shoulder and he glanced up. Sentries flew above him, and a few clung to the side of the cave wall.
He growled as he swapped his Raptor for Debonair, leapt between the platforms, and focused his fire at the sentries on the wall. They were eliminated with ease and their stun shots missed, but another slug from a flying droid struck his shin and he almost tumbled from his platform. He spun quickly and shot the attacker out of the air, but two more circled above, dove toward him, and fired. Kaiden flung himself off the platform to one below and hurled a shock grenade above him. It exploded, and the droids lost control. They spiraled before one slammed into the platform Kaiden was on and another flew past and into the cave wall. He kicked the malfunctioning sentry off the platform, and it crumbled and disappeared.
Wave 2 Complete
“Nice shooting, Tex,” Chief chirped.
“You know you haven’t used that pun as much as I would like you to.”
“I gotta keep it fresh, right?” the EI snickered
Wave 3 Commencing
“All right, this will have—” the EI’s words cut off as the lights in the cave dimmed and darkened. Even with the visor’s light enhancer, the ace could barely see in front of him.
“This ain’t right. It’s supposed to be another wave with some Havoc droids. What’s with the blackout?”
“I don’t see anything,” Kaiden said. He hopped off the platform and landed on the ground below. “A glitch maybe? A special round?”
“Animus glitches are rare and even then, are usually visual,” Chief stated. “You might have met the conditions for a change-up. They did want you Advanced class guys to shake things up, but I don’t see— Wait, someone’s accessed the console. Someone with high clearance.”
“Who did—wait, did you hear that?” The ace drew his Raptor and looked around. “Scan the cave.” The white grid appeared but revealed nothing. “If something’s wrong I would have de-synced by now. What the hell is going on?”
A brief, faint click sounded behind him, and Kaiden spun and fired. It didn’t seem that he had hit anything but the wall, but he could have sworn he saw something in the light of the laser fire.
Without warning, he was tackled to the ground and he dropped his rifle. In a split second, a metal hand closed around his throat and held him in place. A droid with a skull-like head and burning red eyes stare down at him.
“Assassin droid! Reaper-class!” Chief cried. The mechanical continued to glare at him before it raised its other hand and a large, jagged blade emerged from the top of its wrist. It leaned back to strike. Kaiden raised his hand as the blade descended and it cut through his palm. He cried out in pain and struggled to keep the blade from advancing, but the droid was far stronger. The ace flicked his other wrist and his heat blade popped out. He activated it as he turned his head quickly to avoid the droid’s strike. The blade plunged into the ground and twisted his arm back painfully.
Kaiden inhaled sharply and struck at the droid’s bladed arm with his knife but managed to only cut into it and not through it. It seemed to be enough to stop his attacker from using the arm, but it tightened its grip around the ace’s throat. He retaliated and swiped his blade toward the droid’s head. It leaned back to avoid the attack, and he used the opportunity to slice into the arm around his throat. He had to saw into it, even with the heated blade, and the arm finally came off. It still clutched his neck, but he was able to roll away and used the blade to hack the hand away. The remains of the droid’s arms ejected from its body. The sides of its chest opened, and two new arms unfolded to take their place.
“Dammit,” the ace cursed and retrieved his last shock grenade along with debonair. The droid charged at him. He threw the grenade along the ground and fired at it to create an electrical explosion. The mechanical’s advance slowed as it stumbled, but it recovered rapidly.
“Those kinds of droids are better protected from shocks. That won’t do much.”
Kaiden fired Debonair until it overheated. The blasts did little against the droid’s barrier. He needed the ballistic rounds. The ace dove for his Raptor and grabbed it as he tumbled and managed to land on his knees and turned to fire. When he had the droid in his sights, it pointed its arm at him. He hesitated, and the mechanical fired a blade from its arm directly through his head.
Kaiden dragged in a shocked gasp of air as the Animus pod opened. He stumbled out and fell, his vision blurred, but he saw someone large standing over him.
“Wolfson?” he asked as his eyes adjusted.
The instructor observed him for a moment before he picked him up, steadied him, and looked at him once more. The ace looked at the console that displayed a feed of his trial.
“You were watching?” he asked.
“Aye.” Wolfson nodded. “Come with me, Kaiden. We have more to knock out of you than dust.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
A wave of déjà vu swept over Kaiden as he sat on a bench in Wolfson’s dropship. His thoughts pulled him back, both to the Arctic and to a week before and the beginning of his gig. Fortunately, this time, Wolfson dragged him along somewhat willingly. He wasn’t sure exactly what the man had in mind, but he had never seen the security head with such a determined or serious expression, even during their most intense spars. He stood and walked to the cockpit where Wolfson watched over the autopilot process. The view through the window revealed a mass of thin trees below.
“Where are we?” he asked.
The instructor glanced at him for a moment before he answered, “Ontario.”
“Canada?” Kaiden questioned. “Are proper border protocols merely a silly myth to you?”
“Relax, idiot. I already took care of that before takeoff.” He shushed him with a wave of his hand. “I thought I told you to put your armor on.”
Kaiden looked at the black underlay suit he wore. “I told you, my armor is wrecked. You haven’t told me what we’re doing. Is this reconnaissance training or something?”
“I don’t remember you being this yappy,” Wolfson mumbled. “Think of it as an adventure for now.”
“You make that sound more foreboding than enticing,” He huffed and sat in the co-pilot’s chair. He looked at the land below in a viewing screen as they passed over a large wall. “What’s that?”
“A wall. It blocks things.” Wolfson snickered.
Kaiden shook his head. “Funny. Why are we here, Wolfson? I told you I wasn’t up to any training. I thought this was an errand or something until you slapped this underlay into my hands after we took off.”
“And I didn’t hear a peep out of you when I did,” the large man pointed out. “But…I suppose I should fill you in and make sure you’re at least a little ready.”
“That is usually standard, yes.” He folded his arms and looked expectantly at the head officer.
Wolfson was quiet as he considered the right words to say. “I haven’t told you much about my past boy—some of it because it seems pointless, and other times, because I think it wouldn’t really stick in that feeble mind of yours.”
“Thanks. I wasn’t using that bit of ego anyway,” Kaiden snarked.
“But a lot of it is because there are things I’d rather not discuss and some I would prefer to be rid of all together. Seeing you back at the gym brought up a few of those moments when I was a commander and leader of a fine group of soldiers,” he continued, his voice now quiet and solemn. Kaiden gave Wolfson his full attention in this rare moment of emotion.
“There were times where we lost good men or dealt with horrors that no sane man would willingly confront, let alone try to kill them. You grow strong and determined in the military, but it begins to compound after a while—all those instances of shock and revulsion, anger and helplessness. I saw good men become nothing more than husks as the years went on, their minds still in control but the will gone. I always see those men as my failures, not their own. I should have seen the change sooner and done something about it.”
Kaiden was at a loss for words. He looked away for a moment to allow his companion to compose himself before he continued. “When I saw you and you told me what happened, I had that same sinking feeling. I’m sure you’ll say I’m usually boisterous and brash, and yeah, sure I am. I’m not here to psychoanalyze you or whatever is the normal thing, but I want to believe there are different ways of dealing with trauma if you catch it before it truly takes hold.”
“I’m not traumatized,” Kaiden vowed and clenched a fist. “I lived, he’s a killer, and he failed. I’ve proven I’m plenty strong.”
“And I know that that’s not always enough,” Wolfson stated. “I watched your trial. You were fine when dealing with the normal trash bots like you always are. But when I sent in that top-class Assassin, you acted like you were a novice again.”
“So that was you,” Kaiden grunted. “Chief said he read someone tampering with the console.”
“I wanted to see how you are. Fighting those children’s toys won’t prove anything except that you can still shoot well and you’re smart enough to avoid getting hit.” He looked at his student for a moment. “Which you did a couple times.”
“They were sentries and the shots felt like mosquito bites,” Kaiden said defensively before he lowered his shoulders and leaned back. “Although I suppose that’s an excuse, isn’t it?”
“It’s good to see you haven’t lost all your instincts.” Wolfson nodded. “But you have the right idea. We gotta make sure you’re back to par. That infuriating ego may be a pain to deal with when you’re mouthing off, but it’s also one of your most valuable assets. You’ve almost made it out to be some sort of superpower. I’ve seen guys like you charge into the fray and yell about how they will kill everyone before they die in a hail of laser fire. Yet you’ve avoided that, for the most part, and actually lived up to your boasts.” Wolfson assumed control of the ship, banked toward the forest, and looked for a place to land. “I may complain, but I don’t want to see that fire of yours go out.”
Kaiden thought over the man’s words for a time. “I…appreciate that, Wolfson.” He tapped his fingers on his arm. “But why does that bring us here?”
“Like I said, it won’t do much good if you simply run the basic stuff. Doubt is one of the first things that hobbles a soldier.” The instructor finally spotted a clearing and took the dropship in slowly. “You told me before you left that your gig in the Amazon had mutants as potential hostiles, right?”
“They didn’t turn out to be only potential,” Kaiden remarked.
“But I bet you didn’t have a problem with them, right? Did it feel good to go against something with grit?”
He mulled it over and cocked his head to one side. “I destroyed a few and things got a bit dicey here and there, but we mostly ran away.”
“Don’t talk like that, Kaiden,” Wolfson snapped, and the ace jumped in his seat. “That’s what I was talking about. Normally, you brag about your kill count and how it was a walk in the park for you. Even if you mentioned a retreat, it would be made out as a tactical decision or because you were bored. You can’t focus on your failings. There’s a thin line between humility and meekness, boy, and you’ve tripped and fallen onto the bad side.”
“All right, all right, I getcha,” he said in an annoyed tone. “What am I supposed to do, then?”
“There are mutants in this forest—Likan, which are essentially meaner and more vicious wolves,” the instructor explained as he unlatched the belt of his seat. “This enclosure isn’t to keep them in a safe area for themselves, it’s to keep them away from the outside world. One of the changes was to their breeding patterns and visibility. They breed like rabbits. It’s hunting season for them and any hunters and trackers with the balls to go after them come and collect heads and pelts for their bounty.” He stood and headed to the back of the ship. Kaiden followed. “I want to show you—or rather, have you show yourself—that you can take these gigs, that your skills aren’t suddenly crap because you fell into a bad situation.”
“And you thought the best way to do this was to take me into a forest filled with mutant wolves?” the ace asked.
“There’s a cave nearby, and a pack always takes it over during the year. We’ll go in there to not only take care of a few of them but you—” He spun and pointed a large finger at Kaiden. “You will go after the alpha.”
“Specifically? Why?” he asked and clenched his fist slightly as another bubble of doubt grew in his stomach.
“You got the skills, weapons, and tech to deal with the runts and betas, but the alphas acquire their status by being the leader of the pack. They are the meanest and most cunning among them. Some even have mutations unique to themselves. I’ll be with you, but I know you can take it out. You failed when confronted by an enemy with unique skills in the trial, but I want you to know that it won’t stop you now.”
Kaiden looked at the cockpit and out the window to observe the forest. Doubt still stirred, but it had dwindled between Wolfson’s encouragement and a voice within himself that barked at him to man the hell up.
“You keep saying I have weapons and armor, but I told you I lost my machine gun and most of my armor, and I left Debonair at the Academy. There isn’t a lot of room for mistakes with only an underlay.”
“Nah, you got something.” Wolfson withdrew a massive case from one of the compartments. He placed it horizontally on both benches and popped it open to reveal a set of silver and black armor and a round helmet with a curved visor. “I got this for you to celebrate your first successful high-level gig. You did succeed even if you don’t feel that way.” The large man took a rifle with a large barrel and metal frame from the compartment and tossed it to Kaiden. The ace grabbed it and examined it. His fingers traced the outline of a small chamber on the bottom of the frame.
